A Peculiarly Pureblood Problem
by somewhere-there
Summary: For Sagakure. The same AU as 'Picture Perfect'. Zero returns from assignment to find Kaname behaving oddly. What is the problem and can he help his boyfriend? ZeroxKaname pairing. Rated M mostly for the future chapter
1. Chapter 1

**AN: **This is for Sagakure, a long promised prize for her review for 'Picture-Perfect' and generally for her absolute wonderfullness to this fandom, and because she likes ZeroxKaname pairing so much. It is rated M, and I'd say genre-wise it's a lemony fluff with elements (Ok, it's really one element but _big_) of hurt/comfort.

So... The story takes place in roughly the same AU as 'Picture-Perfect' - that is Zero and Kaname are living outside of Cross Academy, together, and they both have accepted their relationship, but are still pretty new at it (though maybe less so here than in 'P-P'). Oh, and I have invented a certain twist to a pureblood physiology that is completely non-canon, but hey! it's AU!

That said - it was really meant as a one-shot, and I probably should've waited till I write it in full, but I found myself waiting for _hours _for a delayed flight, so I wrote this, and now upon arrival had typed it up (and am falling asleep at the keyboard, so please forgive any typos for now), and because I'm impatient I will post it too, even though the plot hasn't even started and all I have is Zero's thoughts, so just take it as a teaser, and I promise to write more soon... (and I'm rambling on and on and on, which only goes to show how tired I am).

_**Edit:**_ Aaaand... the typos are corrected thanks to dear YenGirl!  
Btw. - just an unrelated thought - I've just noticed that both my tales of this pairing are named using (if we disregard the article) exclusively with words beginning with "P". It's purely coincidental, but, for some reason it's funny!  
Thank you to everyone who already reviewed, I will answer your reviews in a little while.

**Disclaimer:**Zero and Kaname belong together and VK belongs to its rightful author, and that is _not me_.

* * *

Zero is tired. The assignment has taken six days instead of four he agreed on, and a seven hour long ride on an overnight bus hasn't helped either.

He is tired. And he stinks. And he is damn homesick.

'No,' he corrects himself in a sudden bout of honesty. 'It's not exactly homesick that you are. You are missing Kaname damn badly. Why else would you take that bus at all, instead of spending the night at the hotel with the rest of your team, and washing, and drinking beer, and going back in the morning in the Association car?'

He knows, it's true. He knows it by a tingling, more than likely entirely unsubstantiated worry that eats at his insides after almost a week in the field, after almost a week where there were no phone booths, hell, not even a cell connection to call the pureblood - just a bunch of level Es leading them on a merry chase. And when they got back to the town they'd started from, he was too scared to miss the freaking bus to spare time for a phone call, and his cell was discharged, lying as a dead weight in his pocket, and what was a call anyway, if in seven hours he could be back and see for himself?.. would be back with this arrogant, stubborn, perpetually sulking and/or perpetually clingy, passionate, tender, and sometimes so hopelessly lost, when faced with the simplest things of this life - despite being the ancestor, and that great master-mind, and a business-shark (or whatever they call the head of huge multinational corporation this days?)... fuff... pureblood...

And he is home already, standing - key in hand before the door of their penthouse-apartment, feeling slightly incongruous with his dusty clothes and well-worn duffel-bag (and he can swear that the concierge still views him suspiciously, even though they have been living here for five months).

But it is not that that brings on the sudden apprehension and makes him hesitate before inserting the key. It's the absolute, time-proved surety that the pureblood will be sulking, when he comes in... sulking, pretending to be too busy (at this time in the morning? try something else), scolding him for not calling and generally reminding him that last time they talked about it he had agreed (under pressure) to not take any out-of-town assignments that would last more than four days. As if it is Zero's fault that his assignment hasn't ended on time! They have agreed to continue with their respective jobs, haven't they? Is it Zero's fault that Kaname feels like "some housewife" (his words) simply because most of his business deals can be handled from his downtown office if not right from home - via e-mails and international calls, and if he ever needs to attend a foreign meeting personally - a private jet takes him there and back again within barely a day? What does he know anyway about stinking buses, about stinking little shitholes of towns, about small hotel rooms smelling of stale smoke and casual sex... let alone such a thing as a sleeping bag? What does he know of places miles removed from the nearest cell relay tower, not to mention a phone booth, and of living with danger looking over your shoulder every hour?..

And there he stops abruptly. Because this is just _not true. _Because Kaname knows about danger all too well. So well in fact, that at times Zero wants to erase this silent knowledge from his eyes, to rub it off with reverent touches and gentle kisses... And he knows that - at least at times - he really does.

Just as he knows that if Kaname sulks - it's only because he misses Zero just as badly, worrying himself sick every minute of each day that Zero is away from him living his dangerous life. Zero knows that Kaname is probably _dreaming_ about the day, when the hunter gets a promotion and is given some dull but honorable post at the Headquarters, and even though Zero hates the very thought of being confined to a stuffy office, sorting through papers eight hours a day, he will probably accept - if only for Kaname's sake, or maybe because he doesn't mind spending each night at home with his pureblood "housewife" (even if he wouldn't admit it, not openly - just yet).

The key turns with a soft click and Zero steps out of the blazing early morning sun and into complete darkness inside the apartment. The contrast is sharp, it is as if not only the sight but also the sound gets muted, but of course his vampire senses make up for the change, revealing the world wrapped up in different shades of shadow, as he puts his duffel down right by the door and moves stealthily further into the penthouse.

The couch in the living room is empty, and it's a good sign. If Kaname feels _really _cranky, he'd move over here, regardless if Zero were home or not, and sleep ridiculously curled up in too little space, getting himself a cramped neck and tingly toes when he wakes. Naturally the sped up healing dissipates all these small pains in no time, but the pureblood makes sure that Zero is fully aware of any _moment _of discomfort he feels. More often than not though, when Zero only _sees _Kaname clutching his pillow and trudging off to the couch, he lifts him out of it and dumps him unceremoniously back into bed - kicking and squirming, but - hey! doesn't it just make for more passionate sex? And sex is one magic medicine that can heal Kaname's sulks, hell, just _any_ of Kaname's bad moods - Zero-related or not.

Zero prefers when Kaname is in a relaxed and happy state though, for the pureblood can be adorably playful and childish then - tickling and teasing, and - man! - can he tell the craziest things with a completely straight face, so that Zero is almost always taken in and has to retaliate - physically, and they both end up somewhere on the carpet in Kaname's study, satiated and glowing, sprawled on their backs beside each other and laughing their heads off.

Ah... duh... is he going to stand here all day - thinking about Kaname, when the object of his thoughts is just on the other side of the door?

Just as stealthily Zero moves on, and - right there! - the pureblood _is_ sleeping, curled half-under, half-above the blanket on his side, his face pressed full into the pillow... Still - sulking?.. But then Zero notices that it is _his _half of the bed that Kaname is lying on, and _his_ pillow that he is pressing his face into so fully, wrapping himself in Zero's scent. _Not _sulking then. Just missing him damn badly. Zero knows. He does the same on those rare occasions, when it is Kaname who is away - and he wonders briefly, if the pureblood with his extra-sharp senses has detected the lingering traces of Zero's smell on his own pillow upon his return.

Now though - the mere sight of Kaname doing just this fills Zero with an almost unbearable desire to lean over and... just kiss him softly... eh... at least for starters... but he is fully aware of just _how _dusty and sweaty and just plain unsanitary he currently is, so he tip-toes to the wardrobe to retrieve his pyjama trousers and then out of the room and into the guest bathroom, where the sound of streaming water won't wake the sleeping beauty that awaits him in bed.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: **It's another short chapter, I'm sorry, but in summer my RL is just too hectic (and I'm trying to at least update often... well, I'm trying, right?). And the mystery is not yet unclosed here, nor is the lemony stuff... uh... commensed. Otherwise - please, enjoy.

Beta-ed by the wonderful YenGirl. Thank you, my dear, from the very depth of my heart *bows*

For **Disclaimer** see chapter 1. Nothing has changed since then :)

* * *

He returns within barely fifteen minutes, still rubbing his hair into a little drier disorder, and he has been thinking about Kaname rather much, while he showered, mostly concentrating on two equally delightful options he has – should he just turn Kaname onto his back roughly and smother him with a deep penetrating kiss, just as the pureblood gasps in surprised awakening, while tugging his pants off in one motion and inserting the first finger inside his opening before he even properly wakes? Or should he climb in stealthily and try his best with gentle touches and soft caresses (rubbing Kaname's nipples ever so tenderly through the black silk, and putting the line of feather-light kisses along the nape of his neck, and slowly and carefully sliding a hand onto his stomach and down, and down to run the very tip of his finger along the sleepily soft length), so that by the time he wakes, the pureblood is already quivering with intense arousal… Ah!.. Zero missed him so much and in so many ways…

As he stands once again by the bed though, looking down on the black clad form, that must've squirmed in sleep, while he was bathing (since the blanket is even more messed up then before, lying mostly down by the pureblood's legs), but is now almost in the exact pose Zero has originally found him in, completely immobile, Zero feels a pang of uncertainty about whether he _should_ wake the pureblood at all, for he _knows _Kaname is tired and needs this sleep…

And it almost freaks Zero out – just how many small things he has learned about Kaname in the (comparatively) short time that they had lived together… a necessity really, since apart from overboard sulks, the latter can still be pretty tight lipped, especially when something bothers, worries or concerns him, or when he's tired, or hungry, or thirsty for Zero's blood, and Zero has to notice it himself and fairly bug the pureblood to admit it… And still it freaks Zero out, just how extensive his knowledge of Kaname's quirks is… _Crap!.._

Like there are for instance several distinct ways to how Kaname sleeps… (_No_, _really_…) While not an especially squirmy sleeper usually, when tired - the pureblood lies so unnaturally, queerly immobile, that Zero has to slide closer and put his arm around his ribs, to be reassured that there still _is_ movement, the soft rise and fall of breathing and the heartbeat below his hand. And when he is _beyond tired_ (like at that time that the pureblood didn't sleep for two nights _and days_ in a row preparing a business plan for a new extension company, and _lying _to Zero, who was in between of assignments and home then, about how he 'had taken a nap and woke already' and all while Zero himself slept), yes, when he's _completely exhausted_ – then there will be this squirming, these bouts of nervous _twitching_ passing through Kaname's body from time to time, as if even in his sleep he is growing impatient with himself, _willing _himself to relax and getting angry when the attempt fails.

'So… bugger it…' Zero decides. He will still kiss Kaname as he previously wanted, and if Kaname wakes, then… and if he doesn't wake, then… After all he is pretty tired himself, and there is always an evening (and generally a few days - after the long assignment they owe him that much) to look forward to.

He climbs onto the bed (the mattress shifting under the added weight, which should've been enough in fact to wake up the black-clad figure, and if he hasn't woken then…) and plants a firm, smacking, entirely _cheating_ kiss on top of the mass of dark-brown curls…

… and freezes… because the pureblood reacts in a way he hasn't expected at all… uh, actually he doesn't know _what_ he expected, but certainly not a pitiful whimper… and it wasn't a whimper of frustrated desire either (Zero knows exactly the way they sound), but one caused by fright or pain…

Zero waits, but nothing more comes from the pureblood… _Nightmare, huh?.. _So that's what makes his shoulders look so tense, even in sleep… No wonder that Kaname hasn't woken earlier, either… some dreams are stronger than the others…

He knows that they _both_ have enough monsters to haunt their dreams. Enough that he _knows_ or at least can suspect about, and he fears to think about what other horrors await Kaname in the span of his _other _life, the one that happened before his current existence, the one that Zero has not a single inkling about.

It is wrong to wake the person, who has a nightmare. Zero knows it from experience. If one wakes, then a nightmare stays right there, firmly imprinted on one's mind in all its terrifying glory… And Zero would hate this to happen to Kaname, would hate the shadows to haunt these beautiful brown eyes for hours on end… So he slides softly closer, pressing himself to Kaname's back as a warm reassuring _presence_ (the movement causing another stifled whimper to escape from the pureblood lips), stroking his shoulder soothingly, whispering sappy nonsense, things that he would _never_ be heard speaking, were both of them awake now ("Shh… It's o'key… I'm here… Everything is alright…"), and hopes that Kaname feels it without wakening and just slips into a happier dream, that will obliterate the nightmare entirely from the pureblood's memory…

'But it's no such luck this day, no?' he thinks, as Kaname kicks at the blanket that his feet are entangled in rather violently and sits up with his back to Zero in one abrupt motion.

"Ah… Zero… you're home… go to sleep then, do… I… just remembered I have a few letters to write yet… so don't mind me, I'll come back and join you later…"

"Kaname…" he tries to catch the pureblood, but it's a futile attempt – and Zero feels ridiculous, frozen with his arm outstretched like this, while the study doors already closes behind Kaname with a soft thud.

'It's alright' he reasons with himself. 'He is just shaken by whatever he was dreaming about, is all… So, lie down as he told you, and give him a bit of privacy to work it out… he will just sit there until he is composed enough, then will, probably, write some e-mail, if only to prove to himself that he hasn't just totally deceived yourself, then will come back…'

So Zero reclines on the pillow (his own, that smells now of Kaname as well, and there is something so very _right_ in how both their scents mingle together) and thinks of everything and nothing in particular – of the pureblood, and nightmares, and the hunt that he has returned from, and – a little worriedly – what if his choice to continue with his dangerous (not always, sometimes it is just plain boring, but then sometimes it _is_ dangerous) occupation gives Kaname more monsters to haunt his nights? Yet – somewhere deep down - he still can't completely believe that his existence could be so important for the pureblood as to have him dream about Zero… Of course, Zero himself _does_ dream about Kaname… uh… quite often in fact… But well, that's different…

And all this time he listens attentively to what happens on the other side of the door, waiting patiently for the soft click-clack of the laptop keys, which would mean that Kaname has already progressed to the letter-writing and will be soon to return. All he hears though is the sound of the pureblood's pacing – back and forth in the study, from the window and to the dark wood bookshelves, and back again. It can be of course that he composes a letter in his head, while pacing, he does sometimes, but somehow Zero doubts it, maybe because the walking pattern doesn't cease, doesn't change – ever since the initial moment of silence when the pureblood first entered the room. It worries Zero a little… no, hell, it worries him a lot, for whatever could've unnerved Kaname to such an extent, should be something big… and he wishes Kaname would just tell him about it, just shared or unloaded or… whatever… but of course he never will… And Zero wants to smash something badly, because he knows it's not even the matter of trust, it's that the damn fool doesn't want to _burden_ him unnecessarily… ah, _crap!_ (And yet the small, ever so honest voice at the very back of his head tells him: 'Don't you do so _yourself_?')

And then his hunter senses go amok for a moment, as he feels the pureblood powers unleashed in the other room, and there is the sound of glass breaking… What? There is still glass in there? _Not_ windows, those are of the most solid bullet-proof stuff. Zero himself had insisted on installing it (a rare occasion where it _was_ he, who initiated the spending of quite an amount of Kaname's money), because the last time Kaname got mad on some his subordinate to the extent that even his exceptional control snapped both he and Zero ended up with their bare feet bleeding, and while the little wounds closed almost instantly when the shards were removed, the _process _of removing them was tedious _and _torturous… So, well, _not _windows. Something small – an empty glass or a teacup left by the laptop, most likely, and Zero contemplates if it is enough of a cue for him to go there and investigate for himself.

The contemplation is short lived though, as the flare of vampiric powers is closely followed by a loud _crash_, and it's not glass anymore, it's something solid thrown into the wall either by telekinesis or, well, the old fashioned way… And if that's not his cue, Zero doesn't know what else could be…

He's by the door even before the sound dies, and – _crap!_ – he wishes he had his slippers on (there is broken glass there, remember?), but those are still somewhere by the front door and it cannot be helped…

So he enters anyway, and there is Kaname, safe and sound, standing by the bookshelf with his back to the door, and the glass he heard was a cup, just as he figured, and the thing that crashed… Zero's mouth opens in complete shock – 'His laptop?! Tell me I'm dreaming… _Not_ his laptop…' He cannot imagine Kaname in a thousand years smashing his precious, oh so needed and all-important laptop into the wall, and then with such a force that he's pretty sure _no data_ can be possibly recovered out of this broken mess.

For a moment or two he is just… well, robbed of words, that's it… and when his mouth finally stops just hanging open in a silly way, it is Kaname, who's speaking, and in completely calm and even tone also, and it is probably only Zero, who knows him all too well, who can detect these slight pauses (not quite hitching, but just as if he inhales through his nose a bit… eh… differently) before the beginning of each sentence, which belie the calm.

"Nothing to worry, Zero… I'm just… I guess I'm more tired than I thought I was… I will take a shower now, and then we can sleep…"

And he is moving already, passing nimbly beside Zero without once turning to face the hunter… while Zero wonders if the pureblood understands himself just how lame the explanation sounds after the mess he created just now, and – is it the new form of a sulk? But – blast it! – he doesn't care, the fact is that Zero's worried in earnest, and whatever it is – it's better to get to the surface of it right now, so he follows the pureblood almost immediately to the bathroom door, and turns the handle, and… Hell! It's… _locked_?!

It's not just this physical obstacle that makes him come to a sudden halt, no… It is the sounds… well, it is distinctly sounding like… like… like behind this closed door Kaname is… sobbing?.. _sobbing?!_

The handle just needs a little more pressure for the lock to break irrecoverably, and, well, good riddance, whoever needs a lock on their private bathroom door? They haven't even ever closed it, so far he can remember… Not until now, that is.

Kaname stands hunched, his hands leaning onto the bath stand heavily, and sure enough – he _is _crying… now that Zero is within the same space, the salty tang of the pureblood's tears is quite apparent in the air, and though he's only ever smelled them once before, there is no mistaking the scent.

In a single move Zero is behind of the pureblood, and his hands surely, yet tenderly clasp over the trembling shoulders.

"Zero… please… please… go away…" Kaname pleads between the pitiful gasps.

_Like hell he is going anywhere._

"Please… Zero… it's nothing."

_Like hell it's nothing._

He tries to turn Kaname around, to bring him to face himself, but the pureblood resists, and – maybe because the shoulders still shake, if soundlessly now, under his hands – Zero doesn't want to use the brute force to make him turn.

"No, Kaname," he says gently, but firmly, "whatever makes you cry now… and whatever made you smash your precious laptop, and whimper in your sleep… It is most definitely _not_ nothing…"


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: **Sorry for updating somewhat later than I hoped I would, but I had a lot of _explanations_ to put into this chapter, and they didn't write smoothly (and may be still not written smoothly right now, but I'm sort of _tired_ of tweaking on them). Hope nobody will kill me for the... hm... content of these explanations. It is just a completely rabid plot bunny of mine that just won't let go.

_Edit:_ You know, I decided to write it after all, because I am sort of more than usually nervous about this chapter: _Please, review_. You know, if you do not like my non-canon twist _at all_, there is really little I can do about it, because the whole plot here revolves around this twist, but if my explanation sucks, or seems implausible, or just hard to read and understand - please, tell me, so that I can torture it (and myself) to the point, when it is actually better.

*hopes so much that dear Sagakure doesn't dislike it completely, since this story is for her after all*

The **disclaimer** still stands, VK still belongs to wonderful Matsuri Hino (and better for it), and all that belongs to me is just this little dumb (and completely non-canon) twist that you find in this chapter.

Many thanks to wonderful YenGirl, who saves my fics from overabundance of typos and just plain mistakes that they would be full of otherwise.

* * *

"_No, Kaname," he says gently, but firmly, "whatever makes you cry now… and whatever made you smash your precious laptop, and whimper in your sleep… It is most definitely not nothing…"_

"I _wasn't…_"

It sounds childish and petulant, and Zero smiles around the edges of his worry. "Whimpering? You most surely were."

"No," Kaname sighs softly and there is a wealth of tired defeat in this single word, "I meant – sleeping… In fact – I haven't slept or eaten anything but the blood tablets for more than three days…"

He turns around – of his own volition now, shrugging Zero's hands from his shoulders, and stands – with his head hung low and somewhat to the right... For the second time today - Zero gasps – this time quite audibly, "Oh… oh damn… wow!", because the whole left side of Kaname's face looks distorted, the cheek (and even like – the side of his nose as well) puffy and swollen, and tinged with that shade of unhealthy rosiness that speaks of inflammatory heat.

Zero's hand lifts unconsciously to touch the stretched skin (just to assure himself that his perception is correct and the cheek _is _hot), but before the hand as much as nears its destination, Kaname swats it away – instinctively and with quite a force.

"Sorry…" he mumbles immediately, and Zero finally understands, what seemed so strange to him in the way the pureblood spoke earlier… Not enough to be exactly audible then, it is apparent now in the way that Kaname's lips move, or rather – don't move on the swollen side - resulting in a very faint lisp. "I didn't mean to… I… It _hurts_…"

His eyes are turned aside, never meeting Zero's directly, and his voice when he continues is full of self-deprecating mockery, "Ridiculous, isn't it?.. How a pureblood could be reduced to such a state by something as mundane as a tooth-ache…"

"Tooth-ache?"

"Uh… more like a fang-ache… please, Zero, don't look…" And it is a little amusing, and well, sad, how he would be insecure of his _appearance_ – of all things! – when it is blatantly obvious to Zero that the pureblood is absolutely at the end of his tether with sleeplessness and pain.

"No, Kaname," he says tenderly, "it's not ridiculous…"

Uh, well… it _is _ridiculous, in a way, because the tooth-ache seems such a little and unthreatening thing, in comparison to what the pureblood in general _can_ endure and _has_ indeed endured in the past, but it is plain _not funny_ that Kaname was suffering here _for days_, all _alone_, while he… he… just accepted the circumstances and didn't even try to find some way and call…

Still shaken with the discovery (and his heart attacked unrelentingly by wave upon wave of worry and shame), Zero sits on the first thing close to him – the john, and tugs on the pureblood's hand, inviting him to come and sit on his lap. He doesn't know what he expects, some resistance, perhaps, but Kaname complies, in fact snuggles close to Zero's chest, lowering his healthy cheek into the crook of Zero's shoulder in silent admission of complete exhaustion.

Close like this, the swelling seems even worse than from afar, and Zero lifts his hand again – now taking all caution to move it extremely slowly, a millimeter at a time, so that the pureblood can see exactly what he's doing, and in the end Kaname just takes it into his own and lays Zero's palm against the burning skin.

A little sigh ghosts across Zero's collarbone, "Ah… it's cool…", and the tense back relaxes the barest little bit, reacting to the temporary lessening of the pain, "can you?.."

Hold it there? Of course, Zero can… shit, he is _glad_ that he can help the pureblood if in such an insignificant way… he only worries – because the angle is somewhat uncomfortable – that his arm will start shaking in a while and he can inadvertently cause Kaname more pain…

His mind is still reeling, a tug of war between guilt, concern, and desperate search for whatever it is that has to be done first… and what he can do that the pureblood hasn't done already himself?… _three days… Crap!.._ But then again – would Kaname even _know_ what to do, being a pureblood and never ill before in his life… uh?! _wait a minute_!.. and the true strangeness of the whole situation is…

"Kaname?" Zero asks in confusion. "What's wrong? Why hasn't it… well, you know, _healed_?"

The pureblood sighs again, and his outer arm circles around Zero's ribs, holding onto his shoulder and simultaneously providing a firm base for Zero's already cramping elbow – a sheer marvel of their instinctive co-operation washing through the hunter in a warm wave.

"It doesn't," and there is a sad resignation in Kaname's voice, "because it's… hm, because it's in a way _natural_…"

"What do you mean 'natural'?" Zero repeats incredulously, because the state of the pureblood's face… and, damn, the man hadn't slept for _three days _because he was _in pain, _and he says it's _natural_?!

"You see…" the pureblood explains wearily, "apparently they are _deciduous_…" and seeing the utter lack of understanding on Zero's face, "what you would call the _milk _teeth… well, _fangs_ in this case…"

"_Baby_ teeth…" Zero corrects absently, and then it hits him, "Uh… wait! Shouldn't those be out already?"

"A quirk of pureblood physiology… all this complete lack of human blood that sets us apart from the other levels… you see… you were human and when you were turned, your body mutated to accommodate for vampire qualities, and so did your teeth, permanent teeth at your age, obviously… though because you were still a child when your transformation occurred, your fangs are now almost as sensitive as if you were born a vampire, and also – grow out fully…" Zero cringes (did Kaname _need_ to make him into an example?)… He (kind of) accepted the fact that he is a vampire, he even learned to enjoy some benefits, and now that the only one that he drinks from (the only one who drinks from him too) is Kaname, he finally thinks that he can live with it… But 'live with it' and 'be reminded of it' are two different things… and the pureblood's next words show that he is completely aware of how the hunter feels, because he continues softly, imploringly, "believe me… it could have been worse… the older one is, when one's bitten, the less do their teeth transform… imagine a level D having to satiate his bloodlust with barely protruding fangs… and yes, if you ever wondered why level Es sometimes rip the whole throat out of their victims… it could be that they don't have the fangs for a proper bite…"

'Was it intended to be encouraging?' Zero wonders. 'If so, it totally _wasn't_… At times Kaname could be so _dense_…" And were it under any other circumstances, he wouldn't hesitate to tell him just so…

As it is, it is good that Kaname's switching onto the nobles already, and Zero's interest prickles, unimpeded by the sick feeling that the previous part of the conversation caused… But there is something that worries him more than the unpleasant topic ever could (and it is telling a lot, isn't it?) The pureblood speaks slowly and deliberately, as if delivering a lecture, and yet his composure is all too easy to see through - Kaname's words are slurring together a little, interrupted by little breaths of distress, and the side of his face that is pressed to the hunter's shoulder shifts and rubs along it every now and then – an unconscious indicator of persisting ache…

"Kaname," Zero inserts urgently into the first longish pause, "it's hard for you to speak now… please… really… you can explain it later… it's no rush…"

His answer is a very slight shake of the lowered head.

"It's not hard, Zero… in fact, it is a distraction… and believe me, anything that can take my mind off it… well," and Zero hears a little chuckle that sounds much too close to a sniffle, "take it to a more _theoretical _realm… is most _welcome_…"

The slender fingers that rest along the hunter's ribcage, move along it soothingly in a gesture of silent gratitude, in a "let me sit and talk like this for a little longer, I'm more comfortable now than in the last few days"… or something to the same extent… and Zero's arm tightens protectively around the pureblood's shoulders in just as eloquent if silent assurance – "sure, whatever you want"…

Strangely enough, Zero too feels unaccountably comfortable, sitting in the bathroom (on a john, of all things), cradling the ailing pureblood and discussing the exfoliation patterns of vampires… the whole picture is just way too absurd to imagine, and yet – here he is, and there is no other place that he'd rather be now… well, maybe with a healthy Kaname in bed, eh? But one sort of makes do with what one has…

"Now where was I?" The pureblood queries rhetorically. "So… well… the nobles… those obviously have vampire blood right by the start… but human as well… and truth is the… vampire powers, or better to say, vampire _qualities_ do not develop at the same rate as human… meaning, they are largely human, when they are born, and then a likewise transformation occurs… only it is not a sudden thing as when one is bitten, but more a gradual process… for example they can absorb the other person's energy almost from their birth, but the blood-drinking only becomes a need later, approximately at the same age as their true vampiric powers awaken, which is somewhere around five or six… normal time even for a human child to lose some baby teeth, isn't it?.. So when the time comes, they just lose their fangs as well… and instead of pretty much human deciduous ones, they acquire a set of fully vampiric permanents – just in time to draw blood with them… don't look like that, Zero, it is actually a great day for a parent, when his or her child partakes of their blood for the first time in his life…"

"And the purebloods?" Now Zero is actually interested in the extreme. All this information is new to him, outside of the hunter-taught vampire-lore, and he finds it slightly shocking to think of noble babies as mostly human, _more_ human than he is himself now… well, at least it helps explain why the vampires guard their young ones so vigorously before they come of age…

Kaname raises his head, for the first time since they've been sitting like this, leaning back against Zero's arm, so that their eyes meet.

"We are vampires through and through, Zero… yet we too _develop_ in certain stages – both our powers and bodies…" he tells it softly, hesitantly, as if fearing that Zero would not believe him, that Zero would somehow think that the purebloods, like demons from hell, spring whole and grown-up right out of their mothers' wombs… hm, out of thin air then… and Zero smiles at the image, and his fingers, somewhat free to move from where his palm is still cupping Kaname's flushed cheek, brush a stray lock of dark-brown hair from the pureblood's brow, urging him gently to continue.

An answering twinkle of mischief shines at him momentarily out of the pain-dulled red-brown eyes, and Kaname draws the pause out deliberately, before he delivers his next line: "I had no fangs whatsoever before I was five and a half… just two little gaps where they were supposed to grow… otherwise I had a normal set of baby teeth, for biting and chewing the ordinary food, but since I was feeding on energy then and not blood – there was no _need_ for fangs… and not being human _at all_, I didn't just inherit blindly the kind of _residual_ fangs that the humans sport…"

Zero smiles again (once his first incredulity lessens) at an adorable image of little Kaname that his mind conjures – all brown curls and shy smiles, covering his mouth discreetly so that the other children do not see the gaping holes between the perfectly rowed teeth, even if, huh, who'd dare to laugh at a pureblood?

"They grew in time," Kaname continues, "along with the permanent molars and incisors, and they were vampiric, of course… but well… as I found out… they are _not _permanent… you see, the pureblood powers grow steadily until the vampire reaches a… uh… fully procreative age at nineteen to twenty one… and that's when those first deciduous – hardly can call them _baby_ fangs anymore, eh? – should come out to be replaced by the permanent ones…"

Now this _is _new… but there is a word that catches Zero's attention in particular in this whole speech.

"As you _found out_?"

"I found a book on pureblood physiology in the library, when the ache wouldn't go away… a rare edition and quite old, there are not a lot of books on the subject as you can imagine…" Kaname says it rather matter-of-factly, but Zero knows that it is not so at all.

The library in question is just a huge heap of boxes in an otherwise empty room lined by dark shelves, the only thing that Kaname chose to take from the Kuran estate, when they decided to stay in town. In all the five months that they've been living here, they still haven't found the time to sort it out properly and put the books in place, or even out of the boxes, really. Well, Kaname would wander inside sometimes, with Zero or on his own, and open up a box or two, taking out a book and leafing through it with this soft, cryptic and infinitely nostalgic look on his face, and then Zero would feel just _forced_ to distract him and lure him out of there and into a happier mood.

That's why the very idea of Kaname _alone,_ handling the heavy boxes, ripping into them and searching frantically for a kind of book that – it being so rare – could've well not been there at all… just because _his pain won't stop_… is enough to tie Zero's guts in a tight and aching knot of desperate… desperate… He fails to find the word for this feeling he's got, his finger running along Kaname's brow softly, incessantly, as he takes in the gentle line of the healthy cheek, the little tragic mouth, the soulful eyes… God, just because this young man before him right now acts so grown-up usually (whether because he had to shoulder the adult responsibilities at an even younger age than Zero himself, or because of this 'ancestor' issue, this other life that he had already lived before his awakening as the Kaname that Zero knows) - it is so easy to forget that nineteen… ('No, twenty already,' he reminds himself, 'Kaname has just turned twenty last month') is so young for a vampire, much more so – for a pureblood…

'A child,' he thinks bitterly, 'he is still a child… procreative age or not… he's meant to be at home with his parents now (hell, that's how most of the Night Class still lives!), surrounded with love and caring… with parents, who would've told him what's happening without him needing to search for some dumb book to find out, who would've known how to help him…' But there are no parents for Kaname, no more than for Zero himself… He was raised by nobles, power-hungry and caring for nothing but the powerful blood they lusted after, and probably not aware of this peculiarly pureblood problem even if they cared enough…

Zero's arm tightens almost convulsively around Kaname, bringing him closer, guiding his head back to the crook of Zero's shoulder, where it _belongs_… and he gulps and wishes that the lump in his throat would dissipate _already_, as he strives to ask as lightly and nonchalantly as is only possible for him now, "But surely you have gone through this… uh… _exfoliation_ process… back in the ancient days?"

"Zero…" Kaname's voice sounds faintly amused from somewhere down by Zero's collarbone, "Do you _know_ how many years have passed since I had the same problem back then?"

"Huh… many?" Hundreds of years… no, maybe thousands… it is really the stuff for Zero's nightmares – knowing that to some extent the soul inside this body is so damn _old_…

"_Very_ many," Kaname chuckles and then continues apologetically, though what in hell _is_ there to apologize about? "I… forgot…"


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: **Oh well, for whatever it's worth, here we go...

The **disclaimer** still stands.

Many thanks to YenGirl for proof-reading yet another chapter for me. And many thanks to wonderful Sagakure for advertising my stories in her blog, which is a great honor for the humble author, since SGK's blog is like the ultimate source of VK goodness. And of course - forever and always - thanks to everyone who read, favourited, alerted and especially - reviewed. I love you all!

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"I don't want to look back at this… look back too closely… but it is not even that. I just… forgot…"

Well, there goes the hope for a magic cure from the pureblood's past …

Zero tries to remember the time of his own baby teeth shedding (after all he doesn't have the millennia to transcend for it, no...), but all that comes to his mind is how he lost an incisor to an especially hard apple… (Crack! And there it was – out of his mouth and stuck in the greenish-white fruit)… He also remembers a time when a stubborn tooth… funny enough, but it could've been a fang too… or a premolar?.. kept in place longer than its neighbors, and had to be removed so that the other teeth could grow straight… but he only mostly remembers Ichiru, telling him a long string of creepy teeth-related stories, while they waited with their father before the dentist's office.

Now Ichiru... (a year has passed and still Zero feels a stab of excruciating sorrow and just as excruciating guilt at a simple _thought_ of his dead brother)… Ichiru then... he was a frequent visitor to the dentist's. Almost all of his baby teeth had to be pulled out forcibly, his "general condition" (or so the doctors said) too weak for even his permanent teeth to be able to push out the temporaries... And Ichiru's flushed, agitated face as he revelled in the moment of _knowing something that Zero didn't_ stands bright and clear before the hunter's mental eyes.

However, what Zero _doesn't_ remember – is _being in pain_. Sure thing, the doctor used a spray freezer on his gum before pulling, but hey, that's _different_, he was like – taking that tooth out _by force_… Even Ichiru only ever complained about the tooth getting 'shifty', when it was time for it to fall out, though Zero knows that in fact the 'shifting' fascinated his brother endlessly, so that he would constantly touch the shifty tooth with his tongue to see how far it would go… No, Zero doesn't remember it being painful at all.

Of course, the vampire fangs _are_ different. The very _unusual sensitivity_ that they have speaks of all kinds of extra-nerves attached, and where there are nerves – there can be pain… and still it is hard for him to reconcile the natural process with the duration and severity of Kaname's suffering.

"What does the book say?" he asks, rubbing his cheek against the dark-brown curls of the pureblood's lowered head to get his attention. "How long should it take?"

"'The exfoliation process that may be accompanied by a mild pain may last up to three days'..."

Hmph! Mild pain, my ass! Zero guesses that all the doctors, never mind vampire or human are taught understatement as part of their professional training… So… hasn't Kaname said that he had the ache for three days as well?.. But there is something vaguely evasive about the way that the pureblood quoted from that book just now, without adding even a word of comment... and no, come to that, it wasn't how he formulated it earlier, not exactly…

"Since when did you say you have felt this ache?" Zero asks on a sudden suspicion, and a heavy sigh that he hears shows that for once his instincts were right on target.

"Since the day you were leaving," Kaname admits unwillingly, "but it wasn't quite a _pain_ then!.. Just, like, a _pressure_… and it seemed to not detract fully after I drank from you... but that's all!.. It was just _bothersome_, not painful, that's why I haven't told," he hastens to explain, "I… I didn't want to spoil our last day together, and it seemed nothing but a minor discomfort…"

At times the hunter just wants to _kill_ Kaname, so that next time he knows better than to do such stupid, stupid _considerate_ things... And even though Zero knows _exactly_ that the greater part of the anger he feels now is fueled by his own guilt – for not having noticed anything by himself (as well he should have!), the exasperation still finds a way right into his tone. "Damn, what an idiot! You should have told me... never mind what!"

Inevitably - as it always happens between the two of them (and even more so now – when Kaname has very much had enough with pain and waiting, and being without sleep) - the pureblood's anger flares to match the hunter's and he leans away from Zero (though still not quite out of his embrace), the brown eyes flashing accusingly, "And never mind – _what_, Zero? _What_ would've you done, had I told? Abandoned your assignment because your vampire lover had an itchy fang?"

"No, damn, probably not, but I _might've_ thought harder about some way to call you from where there were no phones!"

"But that's exactly why I kept silent!" Kaname raises his voice another pitch, and Zero worries that if they keep it up, and both do not calm down, like _real _soon, the mirror on the bathroom wall may go the way of that cup earlier. "I didn't want you…"

Whatever he 'didn't want' is interrupted by a series of short dry coughs (no wonder, he's talked so long, and his throat must be parched from keeping the mouth slightly opened because of the aching fang…), and Kaname falls back onto Zero's shoulder, the nails digging sharply in, where he clutches onto the hunter's ribcage and back... and still wheezes stubbornly despite it being a sure way to provoke another fit, "Didn't want you get _killed_ because you were distracted during a hunt…"

Isn't it curious, how Zero's anger dissipates in an instant, leaving in its place a somewhat frantic concern, when the slender shoulders that he embraces tense in a futile attempt to fight down a cough, and then shake convulsively, and a long crack runs slowly down the mirror (like a tear drop sliding... well, almost...) as Kaname coughs again, and again, and hisses with pain.

"Wait here…" Zero stands up, disentangling the pureblood from himself gently, "wait… I'll bring you some water… such coughs... they don't go away by themselves…"

"Nothing…" Cough. "Nothing's wrong… with my _legs_…" Kaname objects... but his pose belies his words, one hand clutching at the counter of the sink now, even if the grip that almost crumbles the marble is more a distraction than support... and Zero pays him no heed...

When he returns – a glass of warm water in hand (pouring, and heating, and mixing it so that the temperature is just _right, _and still making it back in barely a minute...), Kaname has almost succeeded in fighting the coughs, but is still bent over the sink, breathing heavily... and when he turns half-way to the hunter to take the glass, the latter can spy his wet, tear-spiked eyelashes, no doubt wiped hastily just prior to Zero's return.

"Does it hurt much?" It is one dumb question, something more told to express his genuine worry, than really demanding an answer... yet Kaname answers it anyway, though his voice is unsteady and he sips on the water every few words, holding the rim awkwardly to one side.

"It… throbs… _constantly_… tock, tock, tock… without stop... and then it _shoots_… when I touch it accidentally, like when I coughed… that's why… I stopped eating…"

The very simplicity of these words squeezes Zero's heart and pushes his brain into an overdrive for something that can be done to help _now_.

"Human painkillers?" he asks hopefully, "Have you tried them?"

He gets a definitive answer, when he opens the corner cabinet and sees a mess of half empty bottles and torn blisters instead of neat order inside, Kaname's voice coming as an echo to his own deductions, "Oh yes, I have… only it seems… my body considers them as poison and deals accordingly… either making me puke them right back... or dissolving them almost instantly… just when it seems that they _do_ start helping… and… puking _hurts_…"

Yet Zero can see that he has taken a lot of them nevertheless, no doubt anxious even for that elusive, momentary respite…

Oh, well… nothing to it… that is… he feels like _crap_ for not being here… but now he _is_… and if there is no other way to ease his pain... then he is dragging Kaname to the clinic, by force if necessary…

Still, a little persuasion first might be helpful, right?

"Kaname," he says gently, coming to stand before the pureblood, who is half-sitting on the counter now, his hand covering his face in that infinitely familiar, uniquely 'Kaname' gesture… (Kaname's 'hand-mask', used to hide any passing weakness behind...) "You do understand, that though the reasons for your state may be _natural_, the state itself is by no way _normal_?.. Your fang… According to the book it should've been out in three days _at_ _most_… Now it's a whole _week_ since the day I left and as you said – it has started… Nor do I believe it should be as painful as that…"

"Don't worry, Zero… I am a pureblood, remember?.. I will be o'key…" Kaname sounds tired but calm, and a slender hand lifts to trace soothing circles on the hunter's temple… (and yet the 'mask' is still in place, still covering whatever indeed his feelings right now, and Zero strongly suspects that the words are meant as self-suggestion at least as much as the way of calming _him_). "Countless purebloods has gone through it before…"

"Bullshit…" _Ow crap!.._ he wishes he could believe the 'natural' explanation as he did at first... but his logic objects, and now he's set to give the voice to these objections, speaking them even as they come to his mind. "Countless purebloods… but what if they needed _help_?.. What if they _had _help?.. And don't forget that they were feeding on real blood – vampire and human, and didn't have to live off chemical substitutes through most their youth…"

"But I drink blood… Your blood, Zero…"

"Yeah?.. And for how long?.. A year?.. A little more than six months, if we speak of doing it _regularly_?.. And how about all those _years_ before that?.. Look… what if the tablets lack something important?.. What if there is a deficiency in them that has gone unnoticed so far?"

"There is no deficiency… The Night Class…" but there is a strained note in Kaname's voice and that means that he has noticed himself that his argument doesn't hold.

"The Night Class are _nobles_… The only pureblood who was testing them were _you_… And someone has explained to me not an hour ago that nobles and purebloods are almost _two different species_… It could be that whatever was lacking, was not as important for them as it was for you…"

Zero knows he is driving himself into a frenzy... right so, he _does_... but the more he speaks, the more _logical_ it all sounds to him, and – damn the stupid pureblood! – why hasn't he sought some medical attention _before_, right after he found out that his tooth is not coming out as described in that book? Gods, but any _sane_ person would long have done so! Why has he chosen to _suffer_ and wait for Zero to come and spell it out for him?!

"My brother," he says… and notices how Kaname has tensed visibly and the fingers still touching onto his temple tremble momentarily, and then - hold still… Right, it is the _first time_ he has voluntary mentioned Ichiru in Kaname's presence, and now the pureblood must know that Zero is deadly _serious_ in what he wants to convey. "Ichiru's body was too weak to push the teeth out by itself, so he had to have them pulled - one by one. Or else the new ones could've grown warped or irregular… You wouldn't want your permanent _fang_ to grow _crooked_?"

Now it is the hand that covers the face that shakes slightly, and Kaname's voice is unsteady and holds a note of warning, "Zero… you are _not helping_…"

And the hunter feels guilty, because he _is _scaring the poor sod, and doing it deliberately… but - hell! – he hasn't even voiced his worst fear yet… one of those damned creepy stories of Ichiru's that he remembers from all the way back – something about the pus from an inflamed tooth going straight to the brain, causing a brain fever and – _bang_!..

'_No_,' he reasons with himself, 'it _won't happen_… Kaname is a pureblood after all… he can _heal _from anything…' But the fact is – he _isn't_ healing, and his cheek _looks _inflamed, and why (why?!) hasn't he gone straight to the clinic, instead of going crazy with pain for the damned three days?!

"Let me look at it," he asks, no, pleads urgently. "Look, I promise, I won't do anything… I won't hurt you… We both know something is wrong, so I just need to see _what_ it is… I will be extremely careful, o'key?.. You trust me?"

The hand that covered the face moves away finally and Kaname gives one short, reluctant nod - _giving in_, though Zero sees that he'd gladly avoided it if he could.

Still he turns, pliant and obedient, towards the light, when Zero asks him so, and opens his mouth, and doesn't flinch, when Zero tells him that he will have to turn his lip up, because the swollen cheek effectively blocks this side from opening, nor when the hunter actually does it - as gently as possible, revealing the aching fang right up to the gum.

_Ow crap…_ Zero keeps his face straight, but it's an effort.

The first thing he notices is that the fang is extended to full length, as it would be for a bite, its tip going down into the fold of the lower lip, and as he turns that down as well, he feels relieved but also surprised that Kaname has not pricked his lip on its razor sharp point.

There would be nothing unusual in that – Kaname's fangs were always on the long side (another detail setting the purebloods apart from the rest of vampire hierarchy) – if not for his other three fangs being fully subtracted right now, _their_ tips barely reaching beyond the even line of incisors. And this really makes _that_ fang to stand out – quite literally – almost as a _foreign object_ buried in the angry and swollen red of surrounding gum.

Briefly Zero wonders if this is indeed what that fang _is _now – something that should've been out already, but is still there (as a piece of bone, as the glass splinters that had to be taken out of Kaname's feet that time when he had broken the window in a temper tantrum) - not foreign enough for the healing reaction to kick in, but not belonging either – and hence causing the whole inflammation and stuff…

Kaname's eyes close, as if he doesn't want to see whatever Zero has found inside his mouth reflected in the hunter's gaze ever so clearly, but his body is almost trembling with tension, and Zero knows… he _knows_ all too well that what he is doing is downright foolhardy… not to mention – cruel, and even - _a betrayal of Kaname's trust_… but his finger stretches – out of its own volition – to test if the fang _is_ shifty (as its somewhat odd angle seems to suggest)…

Next thing he feels is a force that is hurling him backwards violently, to land in a rain of broken tile and cement onto the floor… And he thinks, 'Oh well… looks like this wall has sustained _some _damage…' and, 'Wish he uses something _else_ next time he wants to demolish his bathroom, lest it becomes a habit…" And then the dear and frightened face floats into the line of his blurry and slightly double vision, and someone is calling his name…


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: **It has been a long wait I know, but I'm even somewhat proud that this chapter comes pretty close on the heels of my latest update to "From This Day Forward", and I managed to answer all the reviews in the meantime as well. Btw. if you are not registered or logged in when you review I obviously cannot send the reply to you directly, but you still can find it in the forum thread.

Hope you enjoy this chapter. There is maybe one, at most two chapters to go still in this story, and then I have a new one planned already - can't live without these boys :)

Oh, and about the "human remedies" - believe it or not, I have really researched the internet and those are the actual recipes (weird though some of them sound).

Many thanks to YenGirl - duh, how come I always have such a lot of typos (which is probably just a gentler euphemism for "mistakes", lol)? Anyway, thanks a lot for correcting them for me!

**Disclaimer: **Kaname and Zero belong together and to wonderful Hino-sensei. Me? I'm just enjoying their company for awhile :)

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**And then the dear and frightened face floats into the line of his blurry and slightly double vision, and someone is calling his name…**

Someone…

"Ka… na… me?" The name comes out slurred and it disturbs him a bit… Still, Zero is glad that he has spoken, for somehow it is almost like a switch is turned inside his brain, or maybe – inside his ears and he can hear much clearer what the other says and even make sense of the words.

"God!.. Zero!.. Zero!... I swear I didn't mean to… Are you alright?"

Is he? He is not sure. In fact it is… well, funny, isn't it? How he's lying there thinking of all the damage done to the wall, and showing no interest whatsoever to any damage that his own body has suffered… _Stupid behavior, Kiryuu, very stupid…_

Tentatively, Zero wiggles his fingers and toes and is relieved to no end when everything seems to move perfectly. Of course, his shoulders are damn sore and so is the back of his head, but if there _is_ one good thing to be said about being a vampire it's that the bruises never stay long – hell, they are nothing but blood spilled from his own veins after all, and at times he imagines with faint disgust how his tissues just absorb it back in, like some greedy sponge…

"I… am… alright… just… winded…" He makes an effort to push himself up on his elbows, only to find his body gathered into a gentle embrace, and Kaname is already on his knees by the hunter's side and hugs him to his silk-covered chest that is lifting and falling, lifting and falling with shaky breaths, with urgent, hasty whispers, "I didn't mean it, Zero… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

"D'mn fool," the first word does still sound slurred, but altogether – now he's sitting, Zero feels that he's coming to - slowly but surely, his vision clearing along with his mind. "Th' tiles… you'll cut your feet on them… remember the glass?"

"I won't… They are not that sharp…" For a moment Kaname's voice almost catches with relief, as if he _needed_ to hear Zero scold him to know that everything was truly alright…

"Like hell they aren't, I've just been lying on them myself…" And he can feel Kaname shifting restlessly too, as if there is something digging into his knees. "Help me up already…."

Of course it is only to be expected that the pureblood would pay no heed to his request. Really, the man is so absolutely careless towards his own health – well, take this tooth, if you need a recent example… But as soon as it is about Zero, he's ready to keep the hunter in bed over the smallest scratch… _Not that "keeping in bed" is necessarily a bad thing…_ but well… in essence – Zero is not at all surprised when a steady arm slides under his knees, and Kaname stands up with a slight "ouch" as the added weight of Zero in his arms makes him grit his teeth momentarily, disturbing the fang.

Still, Zero knows him just too well to think that the grim expression upon this beautiful face (while the pureblood carries him into the sleeping room with infinite care…) is only _entirely_ caused by the toothache…

"Stop it," he commands - gently but firmly.

"Stop what?"

_And just whom do you think you can fool with this feigned nonchalance? _

"Stop eating yourself over throwing me into that wall. You just reacted to pain, and it's my fault really for touching your fang…"

For a few minutes, Kaname doesn't react in any way, making a great fuss of lowering Zero onto the bed and meticulously adjusting the pillows, and it is only when there is absolutely nothing more for him to do that he finally looks up into Zero's eyes with this sheepish and - due to the current circumstances - lopsided smile…

"Uh… yeah… I think I was… Why… why did you touch it anyway?"

There is more interest than accusation within his question - much to Zero's relief, and so the hunter shrugs… well, as much as he can shrug now – lying down and with his shoulders still somewhat bruised even if it's nothing compared to how it felt in those first moments in the bathroom.

"Wanted to check if it was 'shifty'… it would be if it's all ready to fall out."

"And is it?" Kaname asks eagerly, his eyes boring into Zero's face as if he somehow can read the answer straight from his mind, and it is so blatantly obvious in this moment just how anxious he is for the end of his torture.

Ah… Zero wishes he could just tell that it is… But the fact is he can't be sure – he only touched it for millisecond, perhaps, and all the flying and slamming into the wall does nothing for the consistence of memory.

"I don't know," he admits finally, "you threw me too quickly." And he hates, hates, hates with a passion the way Kaname's face loses this inner light, as the pureblood nods in quiet resignation.

"Oh, well, OK…"

For a moment they just stay silent – one lying in bed and one sitting tiredly by his side, and then Kaname closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and… "Ouch!.." he moans sharply, his fingers digging into the sheets and – as it happens where his other hand lay – right into Zero's thigh with such a force they almost cause an answering moan from the hunter.

"What the…!" The curse is cut short because of the sheer _obviousness_ of Kaname's pain and Zero just gently tugs at the white-knuckled hand almost ripping holes into his pajama bottoms, "Come on… come here, lay down by me…" sliding further and turning onto his side to free the place, and when Kaname complies, holds him tightly until the small tremors within the pureblood's body subside, and the tiny sniffles calm down into an even breath, and finally Kaname whispers - the lisping more pronounced than ever, "Yesh, Zhero… it shiftsh…"

_What an idiot… _Yet, strangely enough, Zero feels like all the fire with which he confronted Kaname in the bathroom has burned down. Now, he thinks, maybe his head needed this jolting (quite literally as it was) to finally see the things clearly… and he nuzzles reassuringly into the dark curls, while his hand rubs soothing circles into the tense back…

"You should've gone to the dentist, you know…" He says quietly, no accusation now present in his voice, just a statement of fact. If Kaname hasn't, well, probably he had his reasons, and so long as it is not about 'not wanting to show his much distorted face to the public', Zero's all prepared to listen to what he tells.

"I wanted to…" comes at the long last from where Kaname's head rests exhaustedly on Zero's arm, "I really wanted to, Zero… only…" Kaname sighs softly… "I… uh… I don't know where the clinic is…"

The answer is so shocking in its simplicity that for a moment Zero is stunned into silence. Yet - absurdly, it just… well… makes such a perfect sense… Being a pureblood, Kaname really would have no _need _for a clinic… after all it is common knowledge that so long as a pureblood is not killed instantly he is able to heal from anything on his own… (_Not from an aching tooth obviously…) _why would he need to know where the clinic is?

The even more shocking thing is that _neither does Zero_. Surely, his healing abilities, even after a year of feeding exclusively on Kaname's blood, are probably somewhere near the noble ones, not nearly on par with the pureblood's, which means that there can be and even _were_ instances where he needed assistance… But the thing is, whatever damage he could not heal from all by himself was usually quickly patched up in the Association's infirmary and then Kaname would come to pick him up, baring his neck almost before they were inside his black limo, and what with the fresh influx of pure blood, he would be almost as good as new before they even reached home... (_which never prevented Kaname from keeping him in bed for several days…_)

Well, clearly it all _doesn't help_… He can't very well bring Kaname to the HA headquarters to have his tooth treated, and even if he could, Zero doubts that any hunter – medic or not - would have the guts to get inside a pureblood's mouth to remove his fang... Well, as to the vampire clinic…

"You could have called Ichijou…"

Kaname shifts a little impatiently against him as if he's somewhat frustrated with Zero questioning his intelligence so much.

"I did. He's off to an overseas business trip - only due back on Friday." _And it is Wednesday afternoon currently… Oops, tough luck… _"And before you ask – Cain and Luca… I dialed them too… have obviously decided to prolong their honeymoon on Seychelles, and Aidou, being Cain's best man, tags along… naturally…"

Frankly, Zero wonders who'd want to have Hanabusa Aidou tag along with them… _especially_ on their honeymoon, but then, he supposes, it's all that _cousinly love_, _duh…_ and Cain and Luca have long grown immune to the blonde's… eh… charisma (for lack of a better word)…

Well, crap… he starts to understand the pureblood's predicament now. And, well, Kaname being Kaname, he _naturally_ couldn't just ask the directions to clinic from whoever answered the phone in his associates' almost exclusively vampire households… Zero, on the other hand, has no such qualms, and the only thing that keeps him from dialing any of nobles' houses immediately is that by all rights it is just around noon now, the very middle of the night for vampires, and he knows that Kaname will veto such a breach of the protocol if he dares to so much as pick up the phone.

"It should've been possible to figure it somehow through your computer," he says instead. "After all it has to be one of the round-the-clock establishments to serve the vampires comfortably. Just how many of such could be there in this city?" Of course, it is no use now, since the computer is beyond repair, so he just mutters it absently – almost like he is doing up a list of things that could be done and striking out the possibilities that wouldn't work…

"Oh, quit it, Zero…" There is almost a note of plea in Kaname's voice, and Zero feels like shit for plaguing the pureblood with his suggestions instead of just letting him rest in whatever _relative_ comfort… but the very fact that Kaname _is suffering_ and he can think of no way to effectively help him, makes for a persistent squirming somewhere in Zero's stomach, and he cannot relax.

"I only wanted to go there in hope that they will give me painkillers that work for vampires," the pureblood continues tiredly, in what is actually a very telling admission, "and I… well, I thought about looking it up through the computer too… only it was too late, because I broke my laptop already…"

"What?" Zero almost jumps up with surprise, only barely remembering in time that it wouldn't do to jostle Kaname so abruptly. "But it only happened just now?!"

"Oh… huh…" the pureblood chuckles ruefully, "this was the final smash… before that… I just ripped the screen right off the notebook… approximately when I have printed out this list…" Lifting himself a little, he reaches over Zero to retrieve a piece of paper from under the bedside lamp on his side.

"What's this?" Zero asks cautiously, taking the proffered print-out as if it is made of gelignite – well, whatever it is, it did provoke the pureblood's wrath, so, well… what is it again?

"Human remedies for a toothache…" Kaname sighs softly, settling back into place, his forehead pressed somewhere near Zero's armpit, "Take a look… it makes for an amusing read… only I guess I was in no mood to be amused…"

Obediently, Zero squints, using his vampire sight to read the small print in the semi-darkness inside the sleeping room and, well, about 'amusing reading' it's so true… some of the recipes… duh…

"Grate some garlic and tie it to the opposite wrist?.. That's gonna smell like hell…"

"Not only," Kaname comments matter-of-factly, "it also causes a rash… You really chose almost the worst of it, Zero… it's only putting chopped onion inside your ear that is worse, I guess…" and there is something disconcerting in how light and brittle his voice sounds, that makes Zero think that _surely not…_ he _would not_…

"You… you tried it out?" And by the time the pureblood answers he already knows what to expect…

"All of them… well, all that we have the ingredients for… garlic… onion… sodium… iodine… heat… cold… crying… have you read up to it yet?.. well, a lot of that…" now Kaname's voice almost overflows with abject self-mockery, "they all sound pretty sensible… only do not help…"

Zero's arm tightens around the shoulders that tremble ever so slightly within his embrace, and he drops the paper to lightly massage the very top of the pureblood's left ear with his forefinger and thumb.

"Have you tried this?"

Kaname keeps quiet for a moment as if listening to his own reaction and then his body relaxes almost imperceptibly, as exhaustion claims the place temporarily vacated by pain.

"Is it in the list?" he asks in a whisper as if speaking any louder can make the effect disappear. "I do not remember if I tried it, but it… it does help…"

_Sure it would_…

In fact Zero knows this spot, as well as the other two listed within the print-out (and another half-dozen that aren't), and he scolds himself for not remembering earlier about this technique… only unfortunately, he also knows that it is only distraction rather than real help that it provides, and as such it is only good for as long as the person would stay distracted… in his estimate - even if he alternates between the spots over and over again, he can _maybe_, if he is _lucky_, buy Kaname some fifteen minutes, perhaps half an hour of lessened pain… way too short even as a temporary relief… but still - not a bad thing, and Zero is prepared to go on for as long as it helps…

…when he feels the familiar tightening in his chest, something that he must have been feeling for some time already, ever since the wall-smashing incident, and now that he finally acknowledges it for what it is – the blood lust – he can even trace the thing that caused it – a small spot of wetness on Kaname's knee. The stubborn idiot has pricked it while kneeling on broken tile, just as Zero predicted… A tiny graze and long healed by now, but with him so deeply conditioned to the smell of Kaname's blood, even the small amount was enough to slowly make its way into Zero's senses provoking the unwelcome fit…

Drinking from Kaname right now is out of the question… so – blood tablets it is… and Zero starts to slowly and cautiously disentangle himself from the clinging pureblood, until he is finally able to sit up in bed, preparing to go and fetch them.

_Damn… and he so hoped that his ministration__s can lull Kaname to sleep…_

This hope is obviously thwarted.

"Stay put," he says soothingly. "I'll be right back." But it's too late, the pureblood is worried already, he doesn't even have to turn around to know he is…

"Zero? What's wrong?"

"Nothing… Just need some blood tablets and they are in my bag…"

He steels himself for what he knows will come – inevitably.

"You can drink from me."

_Oh duh… please, don't make it harder for me… please…_

Determinedly, he moves closer to the edge, only to have Kaname's hand clamp firmly and inexorably around his wrist, and unless he wants to drag the pureblood along like a floating anchor on a chain Zero has no option but to turn and try to reason it out.

"You are ill," he says bluntly, and yet his hand belies the stern tone utterly as it moves with infinite gentleness to trace the outline of Kaname's swollen and flushed cheek, "just who do you think I am when you ask me to drain you more?"

What he needs now is to turn around and go – go, go, go immediately… but Kaname's eyes gaze almost imploringly into his and Zero can veritably _hear his control crumbling_ as he feels himself drawn into their soft mahogany depths, an then - the very surety of the pureblood's voice reminds him that there hardly was one argument with this person that he has won _ever,_ and now is not going to be an exception…

"Zero…" there is actually a tender and somewhat wistful smile on Kaname's lips, and he tugs on the captured wrist, making the hunter bend lower to himself, knowing that the bloodlust itself is his best argument, for it would make it extremely hard for the ex-human to escape once he is close enough to feel the heavy, _anticipating_ pulse of blood in his veins, "If it was only about the amount of my blood… I wouldn't have this toothache in the first place… I would have healed… Since I haven't… a little more or a little less of it won't change a thing… You need it too… I injured you earlier and it's only natural that your body would need replenishment… please, Zero, drink from me… I do not mind…"

The crimson haze is almost obscuring Zero's vision now, and he falls to Kaname's chest admitting defeat… no, in fact he retains just barely enough control to lower himself there slowly, even if inside he is a mess of burning hunger and broken resolve…

"You are… an idiot…"

The reprimand is futile, and Kaname's chuckle reverberates in his ears, "Maybe I am… do drink, Zero…" and he is lost…

He is lost in the first sweet, sweet taste of Kaname's blood in his mouth, in the very overwhelming sensation of this intimate union that they share… but also in the swirl of feelings that the pureblood can't hide from him now, can't suppress as he does so often on the wrong assumption of 'doing it for Zero's sake'… now, in the pureblood's blood he is living out the hell that the last few days had been for Kaname – the frustration and suffering, and near despair of trying and being unable to escape from this ache, to somehow shut it out by sheer willpower, if nothing else works… and the waiting, waiting, waiting for Zero, mingled with stupid fears of Zero actually finding him in this state… _What an idiot… _But anyway - it's all laid open for the hunter now, something that Kaname most probably hasn't thought out consciously, when he has forced him to drink… And the pain itself… ah… it's almost like he is _drinking Kaname's pain_… And when he slowly retracts his fangs and licks the puncture marks shut finally – the copper is mixed with salt on his tongue as he runs it along the smooth skin – the copper of blood with the salt of his own tears, running freely, borne of the emotions he received…

"Drink more, Zero…" Kaname's words come hoarsely from over his head.

"No… it is enough…" He shakes his head, still unable to raise himself from crouching close to the pureblood's neck, still reluctant to show him his tearstained face…

"Drink more, Zero… please…" And there is something in Kaname's voice that makes him look up sharply… _and never mind his tears…_ because there are tears staying in the pureblood's eyes as well, between those spiky wet, impossibly long eyelashes, and Kaname's chest rises and falls unevenly with strangled sobs as he finally squeezes his eyes to let the tears flow, "please… Zero… please…"

Without thinking, Zero gathers the pureblood into his arms and holds him tightly, holds him securely cradled there, while Kaname's body shakes helplessly within his embrace in a spectacular breakdown of any control he might've still been clinging to previously, "Please… Z-zero… you… you don't know… how it is to _not feel pain…_ to not even _think about pain_… all the time you were drinking… you have to… you…"

"Sshh… sshhh… Kaname… I will… I will…" The hunter rocks slowly back and forth, his own helplessness morphing for just a moment into a blinding rage at himself and then into sudden clarity, and it's almost like the domino stones falling, like the matching tiles coming together in the slot-machine with a loud clink – he sees exactly what he should do and how he can help his friend, and the determination-borne calm shines clearly in his eyes, when he places a soft and tender kiss onto Kaname's temple and lowers him gently into the bed, rubbing the shaking shoulder until the last hiccups subside, "Give me just a moment, my love… and when I return – I will…"


End file.
